Santa Clara Mag Blog

On Campus: The Economics of Good and Evil -- Oct. 19

Monday, Oct. 17, 2011

Economist Tomas Sedlacek has shaken the study of economics as few have. How? By arguing a simple, almost heretical proposition: Economics is woven of history, myth, religion, and ethics—and ultimately it's about good and evil. In making his argument, Sedlacek ranges from the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament to Adam Smith, Fight Club, and The Matrix.

Sedlacek served as an economic advisor to Czech President Vaclav Havel, is a member of the Czech National Economic Council, and lectures at Charles University in Prague. He's been invited to speak to the World Bank and the House of Commons on taking economics out of a purely mathematical realm and putting it back into a human one. His book, Economics of Good and Evil, has been a best seller in the Czech Republic, was adapted for the stage—and now is out in an English language edition from Oxford University Press. This will be his only lecture in Silicon Valley.